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A few things, the poster who remarked about the speed of the bullet relative to the speed of neuron signals:

This is based on the assumption of immediate brain death

Where in the brain specifically does the shot strike?

I can tell you that a shot to the brain is rarely immediately lethal — the victim is usually conscious for a brief moment before shock sets in. [2] Just long enough to feel excruciating pain. Assuming immediate brain death, which again, is quite unheard of. The victim would need to become unconscious or dead within several hundredths of a second to avoid feeling pain. It’s possible as well that the nervous tissue is simply destroyed by the bullet itself before conscious pain signals are able to be felt.
If you wanted the most common sense answer, and the one that is technically correct, barring most unlikely scenarios, a gunshot wound to the head is extremely painful and carries a high mortality rate. [2]
That being said however, headshot wounds, and other wounds that penetrate the skull are more survivable than you might think. About 10% of people suffering close range headshots do survive. And any one of them is liable to tell you how painful it truly is. [1] A specific case study which much physicians and scientists refer to when studying head-trauma is the case of Phineas Cage. He famously survived an injury in which his head had become entirely impaled upon a railroad spike.

Now Mr. Cage makes an awesome testimony to the survivability of particular brain injuries — seeing as his injury was what physicians refer to as a “perfect injury.” Meaning he was injured in such a way that he had survived, though a small deviation in the localization of the rail spike would have meant certain death. The same basic principle applies to gun shot wounds, and it’s why we have a realistic prediction model to estimate the mortality rates for such accidents.

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The speed of these signals depends on how fast the exchange of charged ions is inside and outside of the cell membrane. The main ions involved are sodium, potassium, chloride, and calcium. Without going into details, I can say that messages in the brain can travel at speeds up to 268 miles/hour

Bullets. The average bullet travels at 2,500 feet per second (around 1,700 mph). If you reacted to the sound of the gun going off and required 0.20 seconds (twice that of the fastest Olympic sprinters) to react, then you would need to be at least 500 feet away to successfully dodge a bullet.

The average handgun is 1200 fps which is what the average suicider person would use.

Second of all the speed of the bullet is irrelevant, what we are discussing is the nature of consciousness and at what point does consciousness continue to be part of a compromised nervous system. Second of all I have personally met a guy who was shot in the head twice and lived.
I have also watched documentaries where people are still conscious while shot square in the head and driving their cars to escape.

A few things, the poster who remarked about the speed of the bullet relative to the speed of neuron signals:

This is based on the assumption of immediate brain death

Where in the brain specifically does the shot strike?

I can tell you that a shot to the brain is rarely immediately lethal — the victim is usually conscious for a brief moment before shock sets in. [2] Just long enough to feel excruciating pain. Assuming immediate brain death, which again, is quite unheard of. The victim would need to become unconscious or dead within several hundredths of a second to avoid feeling pain. It’s possible as well that the nervous tissue is simply destroyed by the bullet itself before conscious pain signals are able to be felt.
Source:
1. eMedicine, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) - Definition, Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, 2009, and Penetrating Head Trauma, 2009. New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Cranial Gunshot Wounds

Please direct your your opinion to the relevant links I checked to obtain the related calculations
Not aware of dealing in averages
I would question that
"nature of consciousness "feeling pain before disappearing equals the discontinued point. Is that a problem?
I personally have looked after, as a registered nurse in a hospital, someone who shot themself in the head but I fail to see any relevance to the original post
Relevant how?
With regard to the post by (Jake Arave said) you replied
Please supply links showing / explaining how pain feels unpleasant to the soul

Bullets. The average bullet travels at 2,500 feet per second (around 1,700 mph). If you reacted to the sound of the gun going off and required 0.20 seconds (twice that of the fastest Olympic sprinters) to react, then you would need to be at least 500 feet away to successfully dodge a bullet.

"No survivers if my calculations are correct"
- obviously a fallacy. Because people have survived a bullet to the head.

Second, you say "Not aware of dealing of averages"

When your original post says "The average bullet travels at 2,500 feet per second."

Does it though?
By bullets do we mean, tank bullets, Jet fighter bullets, ship bullets, etc. All which are outside the scope and intent of the original post.
The original intent of the post was to discuss small arms.

So an average rifle travels at about 3000 fps.
An average smg travels at 900-2000 fps.
An average pistol travels at 600-1500 fps.
An average shotgun travels at 1200 fps.
So I fail to see how you got the average muzzle velocity as 2500 fps.

The final fallacy you do is you meantion the brain speed as 268 mph, then go on to say that since all bullets are faster than 268 mph, you say "Based on my calculations, NO" that the victim could not feel the pain in his head. When the bullet speed is largely irrelevant of the pain he feels in his head, except in the sense of the wound size caused related to bullet speed.

KittamaruAshes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums.Valued Senior Member

In all honesty, the speed of the bullet is irrelevant - it's the speed at which consciousness is lost that matters. If your brain is destroyed entirely, it doesn't matter if it is by a supersonic bullet, or a ten ton tractor tire landing on your head from a drop of 20 feet - either way, if your brain is annihilated before the signals for pain reach it, then you won't feel anything; otherwise, you will, for however long you are conscious and alive to feel it.

Essentially, if you are dead or unconscious within around 250 milliseconds, you won't feel anything.

Now, the scary bit - most shots to the head are not "instantly lethal" - especially with more common handgun rounds (.22, 9mm, etc) - often, they bounce around a few times and turn you into a vegetable, but if you are found and given medical treatment, there's a fair chance you'll survive. The pain would be excruciating, though, and the few moments before you lost consciousness would feel like an eternity in hell.

Now, the scary bit - most shots to the head are not "instantly lethal" - especially with more common handgun rounds (.22, 9mm, etc) - often, they bounce around a few times and turn you into a vegetable, but if you are found and given medical treatment, there's a fair chance you'll survive. The pain would be excruciating, though, and the few moments before you lost consciousness would feel like an eternity in hell.

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I doubt it. Pain makes time slower but not to a complete stop. Pain is a matter of perspective, it is often the word "pain" which causes pain. For instance, I injured myself, without knowing it, and after a while I noticed a strange sensation. Once I saw the blood everywhere, I thought "PAIN" and all of a sudden, the strange sensation turned into an annoying pain.

The few moments before you lost consciousness I doubt you would feel anything, other than a bit of strangeness that you had finally been "had" and now cannot escape your end.

It's an interesting discussion in many ways. Bullet speed is a factor only in the additional kinetic energy that additional speed implies. In that regard it makes a lot of difference to the damage done. In the case of an ICBM (missile) dropping from space back to Earth, no warhead short of nuclear is needed as the tremendous speed produces enough kinetic energy to do the damage that a chemical warhead would do. Speed kills.

I think it is correct that pain is not felt in the brain. Even if it is, shock would probably delay that pain as it does elsewhere in the body. Finally, being shot in the head would be less painful than being shot in your foot where there are a lot of pain receptors.

Short pain before you died (if that was the result) wouldn't be a big deal, no more than hitting your thumb with a hammer. In one case the pain is greater but there is little lasting damage. In the other you probably die. That is difference and not the pain.

KittamaruAshes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums.Valued Senior Member

I doubt it. Pain makes time slower but not to a complete stop. Pain is a matter of perspective, it is often the word "pain" which causes pain. For instance, I injured myself, without knowing it, and after a while I noticed a strange sensation. Once I saw the blood everywhere, I thought "PAIN" and all of a sudden, the strange sensation turned into an annoying pain.

The few moments before you lost consciousness I doubt you would feel anything, other than a bit of strangeness that you had finally been "had" and now cannot escape your end.

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From the accounts of people who have been shot, it would seem to depend on whether or not shock sets in quickly:

"I took a couple bullets in my time in the service. Two of which were minor incidents thanks to the helmet and body armor. I was running into a road to try and pull some guys who had been hit to safety when a ricochet came up and got me in the groin. Missed my femoral by about half an inch, and fractured my pelvis before breaking into pieces and playing 'slash the colon to stinky ribbons' with my insides. Initially felt like when a nut hair gets stuck with sweat to a thigh, and you pull it out, like a really nasty pinch. Then I fell on my face. When I rolled over and saw all the blood, and how bright it looked, I assumed it was a femoral hit. I started thinking about how this was a shitty place to die. I remember looking up and thinking 'at least it was a nice day out.' before things get fuzzy. I also remember what felt like about a million hot brands being stuck up my butt. It hurt a lot.

I was already hopped up on adrenaline, and there was already a bunch of noise going on when I was hit, so it took me a little bit to figure out what happened. Then it hurt about as much as you'd think. It's important to remember that if you've never been shot before and you don't see it coming, it's rarely the first thing to come to mind, as you have no frame of reference. You just try and think of what happened in terms of things you've already experienced."

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"I got shot in the leg. It really didn't feel like anything at first. I was aware that something had hit me but I didn't know what it was. It wasn't until I picked up my leg and put it back down that I felt the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. I'm talking blinding pain. The lower half of my shin was like jello. I have made a good recovery. I spent over a year on crutches, and had to have three surgeries to repair what could be repaired. The doc took a chunk of bone from my Iliac crest and grafted it into my leg."

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In general, being shot has been described as one of the most painful things you can imagine, once the shock wears off.

It's an interesting discussion in many ways. Bullet speed is a factor only in the additional kinetic energy that additional speed implies. In that regard it makes a lot of difference to the damage done. In the case of an ICBM (missile) dropping from space back to Earth, no warhead short of nuclear is needed as the tremendous speed produces enough kinetic energy to do the damage that a chemical warhead would do. Speed kills.

I think it is correct that pain is not felt in the brain. Even if it is, shock would probably delay that pain as it does elsewhere in the body. Finally, being shot in the head would be less painful than being shot in your foot where there are a lot of pain receptors.

Short pain before you died (if that was the result) wouldn't be a big deal, no more than hitting your thumb with a hammer. In one case the pain is greater but there is little lasting damage. In the other you probably die. That is difference and not the pain.

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I'm not so sure that a head shot would be that painless - as I said above, if you are instantly killed (or nearly instantly) then sure. However, there are plenty of cases where shots to the head/face aren't instantly lethal, and are even survivable - in those instances, once the initial shock wears off, the pain of having a hole put through your head would most likely be immense.

The earliest memory I have of the Vietnam War was of a village chief who had been shot in the head. The VC held a gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. The shot severed both optic nerves but he survived.

The earliest memory I have of the Vietnam War was of a village chief who had been shot in the head. The VC held a gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. The shot severed both optic nerves but he survived.

Interestingly, brain surgery could hypothetically be performed under only local anesthetic without the patient experiencing any pain or discomfort.

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It's not hypothetical. It often IS performed with the patient conscious, so that the surgeon can determine that a structure he's about to pass through isn't critical to the patient's cognition. (Or to determine that the electrode is in the right place in the case of things like deep brain stimulus.)

It's not hypothetical. It often IS performed with the patient conscious, so that the surgeon can determine that a structure he's about to pass through isn't critical to the patient's cognition. (Or to determine that the electrode is in the right place in the case of things like deep brain stimulus.)

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That would make sense, I don’t happen to know much about invasive brain surgery or how it’s performed, but wouldn’t a patient being conscious create certain difficulties? I wonder what could happen to cause further damage during such an operation.